With the advent and proliferation of relatively thin computer monitors, such as the liquid crystal displays that are becoming more popular, there is more design freedom to develop support mechanisms for such relatively thin monitors that exhibit creative design features as well as improved functionality. This is due to the fact that such thin monitors do not weigh nearly as much as the old CRT monitors, nor do they have the significant depth that produces a large footprint. Of course, such LCD displays are not entirely new and support apparatus for such monitors have been developed and commercialized. Many of the early designs were static, in that they did not permit any significant movement of the LCD screen other than the adjustment of the screen tilt angle. More recent designs have permitted some degree of height adjustment including one that has been commercialized and is the subject of a patent application entitled “Computer Monitor Base With Height Adjustment”, Ser. No. 10/692 982 and filed Oct. 24, 2003.
In that application which is assigned to the same assignee as the present invention, the monitor support incorporated a four bar parallelogram linkage to provide height adjustment, and it also permitted adjustment of the screen tilt angle. Moreover, the support permitted the parallelogram linkage to the moved down past horizontal and also permitted the monitor to be pivoted rearwardly through a limited amount of rotation to reduce the size of the entire unit to a size that facilitated storage and shipping costs.
While this support had many desirable attributes, significant improvements have since been made which are the subject of the present invention.